Good point Gail - although it probably depends on the child's receptive communication. My ds' receptive communication has always fallen at exactly average for his age. Expressive is actually above average for him. Functional communication (asking for what you want/need) and conversation has always lagged a little behind though.
Anyway, my son actually needed me to go through all the steps it seemed. He needed to fully understand everything. Which is why the book "What to expect when you go Potty" was so effective for him - it helped him understand what his body was doing and where everything went after he flushed. Most kids would not get that book at the age of potty training. My ds trained a little late (started at 3 1/2, finished the day before he turned 4) but that book was amazingly helpful. Again, he needed that detailed explanation.
A lot of kids wouldn't and would do better with simpler phrases - thanks for the reminder!
My son did this at age 3. I dealt with it two ways. 1) He would often ask me questions he knew the answer to. So I ended up responding by saying: Well, what do YOU think? Then he would tell me and that was it - he would stop asking. I guess he just wanted confirmation of what he thought. He still does this occasionally - but nowhere NEAR as often! 2) When he would ask the same question over and over and he did NOT know the answer initially - I would tell him one time. If he asked again, I would say, "Oh. You must not have heard me the first time I told you." Then I would tell him again. The third time, "Did you already ask that question?" Yes. "Well, do you remember what I told you?" If he said no, I would repeat it one more time, telling him that he could ask one more time and that was it. If he remembered and told me, I would tell him that since he knew the answer, he was done asking. Then I would not respond to that question again. It is EXTREMELY hard to ignore and I wasn't always successful (particularly if I was driving!).
Lou and Lou's Safety patrol (Playhouse Disney mini-show) helped with the driving issue. I now say, "Oops! That's a safety violation! Do you know what you did that was a safety violation?" He can usually come up with that he wasn't supposed to be asking questions of the driver/talking loudly in the car. If he doesn't come up with that, I remind both he and his sister. This almost always stops questions for most of the trip.
Hope this helps!
We used to try and re-direct him OR say 'all done'...that worked for us....Jeremy did that WAY WAY back...not sure if it was the correct thing- but it worked for us..
too many words we were told was not the way to go....but- again- this is what worked for us.
Gail
My son is five and did this for most of his 3rd and fourth year and has recently just stopped. I do't really know if it is a stim or not. I think language ability has something to do with it. They get excited about what they are going to do, or are thinking about what they just said and maybe want to talk more about it but their abilities only let them repeat. It could however be a stim or perservation. My son is very obsessive. The way I would handle it when he did it was to rephrase what he said, make sure he got a clear and definite interpetation of whatever he was asking and then repeat his question back. In other words, "Can we go to the Park?" Yes, we can go to the park! "Can we go to the park!" Sure would you like to go the park? "Yes! Can we go to the park?" Yes we are going to the park. What are you going to do when we get to the park? - And then I would just ignore it if necessary. I don't know if that was the best way to handle it, but what I found was, that after intervention started and his language skills got better his repeating started dwindling. Maybe if you really think it is a perservation you can redirect him to atleast whisper to himself when he has to repeat if you really think he is not expecting a response.
My son is almost 5 years old and has been diagnosed with PDD NOS. He perseverates a lot. I am almost postive it's not stimming or echolalia. He repeats things over and over. He may say Mom can we play with the water colors, but repeat it 10-15 times even if I answer the question. How do I teach him that it is only appropriate to say something one time. He does not go to school for another year but I am so worried that no one will be his friend or that they will tease him. If you have any suggestions on how I can explain to him in a way that he can understand.
Thank You,
Heather